Outlying Towns' Plan Incinerated By Joint Planners

May 31, 1985|by NICK POLITI, The Morning Call

The boroughs and townships in northern Northampton County have not gotten the endorsement of the Joint Planning Commission of Lehigh-Northampton Counties (JPC) for a small refuse burning/steam generating plant in their area.

The JPC staff said, and the commission members agreed, that onelarge incinerator at the Bethlehem landfill on Applebutter Road would have "a lower overall annual cost" than building two incinerators: a somewhat smaller incinerator at the landfill and a much smaller one in Bangor or at Gracedale, the county home in Nazareth R.1.

Over recent months, as Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton have moved together to build an incinerator, northernmost municipalities looked at the long haul their garbage trucks would have if only one incinerator were built at the Bethlehem landfill.

Instead of agreeing to a small incinerator, the JPC last night urged those municipalities to "work with the Lehigh Valley Solid Waste Authority to make suitable arrangements and commitments to use the resource recovery plant being developed by the authority at Bethlehem." The three cities constitute the authority.

But help for those northern municipalities is being considered. The JPC has undertaken a study of garbage transfer stations "to reduce hauling costs from the more distant areas." That study should be finished by mid-summer.

Allen O'Dell, a JPC chief planner, said that the authority hopes to get "letters of intent" within a month from municipalities in both Lehigh and Northampton counties for the use of the incinerator. The letters would show the interest of the municipalities in bringing their garbage to the plant, estimated to cost $56 million.

He said municipal representatives in groups of six to eight will be briefed within the coming weeks about the details of such a letter. O'Dell said that, by the end of December, municipalities will be asked to enter into contracts committing their refuse to the operation.

He estimated that 4 1/2 years will pass before the plant is working.

Hanover Township, Northampton County, got JPC support for its proposed ordinance that would charge developers a fee to help pay for improvement of township roads outside their development. The JPC staff called the idea "a first" for the two counties.

However, Hanover officials will be told by the JPC to do a transportation study and write a schedule of road improvements for which the fees would be used. An example of a fee would be $126 for single-family dwelling in a new subdivision.

Michael Harakal of Whitehall said his township is also studying such a fee.

To reduce the chance of a successful legal challenge to such an ordinance, Glenn Taggart, a chief planner, said a municipality should show a need for fees and a program for their use.

Several commissioners urged the JPC staff to offer a more long-range solution to the traffic problems in the Trexlertown, Wescosville and Dorneyville area than the staff offered in a recent transportation study.

Commissioner Frank W. Moyer argued for a new arterial road there.

"We've been studying for 15 years how to get around Trexlertown and Wescosville," Commissioner Norman A. Clowes said. Clowes supported Moyer's call for a long-range plan that includes a major new road.

Taggart said the area has 1,800 acres primed for development, and that in 5-10 years the roads there could be handling 88,000 more daily trips.

But Taggart said that an attempt to get $3 million for a Dorneyville-Route 222 bypass in connection with the building of Interstate 78 would face difficulties, and predicted that money for a major road as proposed by Moyer would not be available in the foreseeable future.

The JPC said it will send a representative to speak with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., about bypass funding when he arrives at the Allentown-Beth lehem-Easton Airport at 6 p.m. today.